Bauer's comments are in a Canadian newspaper and intended for a Canadian audience. By and large Canadians don't know much about cycling. They hear about it for 3 weeks every July and whenever a drug scandal breaks, so their perception of it is that it is dirty. As the promoter of a Canadian cycling team trying to find Canadian sponsors that's got to be frustrating.
The sports that Canadian's do follow NFL, CFL (grid iron football) and NHL (ice hockey) have very little PED scrutiny and fans are happy to stay ignorant. Hockey, as the national sport, especially gets a free pass. When Richard Pound speculated that a third of NHL players might dope, Canadians questioned his patriotism. You hear national commentators saying that hockey players don't dope, because there aren't the same benefits to be gained (because apparently strength, speed and cardio vascular endurance don't matter in hockey?). Friends who have played at the junior level tell me it was once not uncommon to have a bowl of sudafed out in the dressing room between periods. This is also a sport where players are told to bulk up and then return from the off season with 10 pounds of additional lean muscle. It's a sport where the league administers the drug tests once or twice a year and in which the penalty is a 20 game (a quarter of a season) suspension
So when Steve is doing the rounds looking for sponsors, he has to say something to counter the first reaction which is "aren't cyclists all dopers".
Steve's is not a sophisticated argument. It's more a diversionary tactic, but it suits the audience.